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Most turbos probably last just under that. The motor might (should) last longer if well maintained, but you might need to have the turbo rebuilt.
The trick is to change your oil often. Synthetics are fine, but a waste if you are changing at regular 3000 intervals.
I am leasing my Jetta. Most people do not drive 50K miles per year.
I am leasing my Jetta. Most people do not drive 50K miles per year.
Secondly that reminds me of a funny story. I have a coworker who leases nothing but Fords because her husband works for them and they get A Plan. Well she had a Taurus as her last car and one day when we were talking she told me that she was getting something like 14-16 miles to the gallon. I said no way and then I decided to recalculate it for her. She was right! Then I asked her how she maintains her car, I said she probably needed an oil change and a tune up. I asked her when was the last time she got an oil change. She said NEVER!!! I said well, how long have you had the car? And she said its lease is almost up, she had had it for 21 months on a 24 month lease and never changed the oil. She said she never has time for that stuff and that she would do it before she turned it in. After than, I decided to never get a car off lease.
I am leasing my Jetta. Most people do not drive 50K miles per year."
I wasn't talking about the mileage, I was talking about the lack of proper care and maintenance.
Of course, if you buy YOUR OWN car off lease, that's a different story.
As far as not taking care of a car because you lease it and who cares...I think that is a waste of natural resources and one should be ashamed of that behavior. I am not always environmentalist, but when it comes to simple, easy, commonsense things, I guess I am.
As for leases...I beat the hell out of my car. Why lie? I do. I shift at 5k RPM all the time, I enter each corner as if I'm chased and treat every driving situation as an excuse to have fun. My father always comments that I drive cars like I stole them. I do. And I'm not ashamed to admit it. Of course, I get service done on time, wait a minute before shutting off (most of the time), keep the car pretty spanking clean.
I know I'll be rid of the 1.8T by 2004 (hopefully sooner if things work out) and I don't care what the next bum has to replace as even abused parts are going to last 45k miles I need. As long as the Jettas runs and looks good VW will take it at the end of the lease no prob. As for buyers, I know people will take it too. I just sold my 1991 Stanza beater for almost a grand more than Edmunds claims it is worth. I thrashed that car (though it looked fine and the interior/engine appeared fine), running it through all manner of strain. I do the same to the Jetta. I'm just renting it.
As for how you drive... I'm glad I own a 5 star car in case I ever get hit by a driver like you.
Carrie
I will try and live with it for now. It's funny......it seems as though this rattle has a life of its own. I did not hear it going home yesterday and part of this morning. It seems to come and go at will.
I am kind of bummed!!
As far as your rattle, that really sucks. Too bad it's back. If you take the car back to them, they might be able to fix it better. Or, it might be like mine and sit in the shop for weeks on end, with no one there knowing what to do with it.
I change my oil every 5000km....which is about 3000 miles. I don't think it's excessive as I want to keep my car for a long time and I'm willing to take steps necessary to ensure that I can keep it in great condition.
Sure people say you can go longer....but there's NO harm in doing it sooner than later. Doing it later than sooner, COULD have adverse affects though.
my question to you jetta folks are....
1. there's a ABS recall on the Jetta? my gf has a 01 wolvie, does this apply to all Jettas ?? and if she never got a letter from VW, can she bring in to get the recall done?
2. she claims that she doesn't rev the engine up when she drives so that the turbo hardly ever kicks in...therefore she doesn't have to idle for a min before turning off her car? is that not true.....and that the turbo is always on? sorry, but I don't know much about turbo's..... I have a 2k Maxima GLE...which I love. if I didn't have my Max, I would probably have bought a wolvie....actually, she likes my max better than her jetta..but there was a 5G difference.... that 5G's made her love her jetta more than a max...
Re: the Turbo. I just had a 1.8t loaner for 3 days and there is no way that the turbo is not being used while driving normally. I felt the turbo kick in between 2-3 RPM. I'm sure she goes above 2500 rpm. To me there was a lot of turbo lag until it finally kicked in, so I can't imagine the turbo not getting use.
You base that little stat on what? Sorry, just find that a tad hard to believe when it's pretty well known that if you use low octane gas high performance engines just dial back the power.
Kyle, officially you don't need to let the 1.8T idle for a minute - the intercooler and such takes care of the engine. I only do so because I run the car hard. If she's doing normal shifting there's not much call for her to let it "cool" down.
Doesn't matter for me...I get free oil changes for the life of my car so I don't pay anymore.
If the car is still hot when you turn it off, the cooling fan will fun. I heard it doing that in mine one time. They still say, just to be safe, to let the car run 30-60 seconds before turning it off. But Blueguy is right, you usually only have to do this after running the car hard.
cool down for turbos is not required anymore either. actually, it never really was. but the old chrysler 2.2 turbos wanted you to in the 80's for some lame reason. cool down....who ever heard of such a thing....
thanks for confirming what I heard from my dealer last april. not that i was told there were any problems using the 91, just that you'll get a little more peak hp at higher rpms. and that in the winter time the engine would be better off with the lower octane fuel. but doesn't your cap say 87/91, not 89/91? did wv update the gas cap sticker again?
please, no quotes from the owner's manual. this will not be updated until the 2003 model year.
As for performance penalites, everything I've read shows that cars that requires premium fuel (such as my 01 1.8T) will in fact have retarded power when using lower octane gas. You may not agree, but the facts speak clearly. The 02's may have different flow control that allows the 1.8T to compensate for cheap fuel but I know the 01s and below don't and when an owner cheaps out, he gets decreased performance from his 1.8T.
As for cool down, what crack are you on with this stuff about older turbos not needing a cool down? Not all turbos had intercoolers. The watercooled engines of the 1.8T help keep the engine temps in a reasonable state, but through the years companies have released turbo-charged cars without intercoolers or too small of intercoolers, thus requiring the cool down. Talk to a mechanic if you don't believe me.
I guess it's just me but spending only $3 more per fill up each week for premium fuel seems like a small price to pay for peak HP out of the engine. A measly $156 a year.
Lastly, when it comes to trusting who to believe...the factory or the dealer, I'll take the factory every day and twice on sunday. Dealerships are run by idiots, penny-pinchers and snakes. They know very little about the cars and can't be trusted to ever give reliable information. How often have you asked a simple question at a dealership and been given the wrong answer? I visit lots often (I was on one last night looking at a Protege5) and 95% of the time the dealership's personnel has incorrect information (or none at all).
the days are starting to get in hot in wisconsin and i'm using the ac of course. sometimes when i turn the car off i get this deep hmmmmm sound that gradually disappears (4 second duration). does this have anything to do with the turbo?
Cut out the generalized hyperbole & personal attacks and keep on track. Thanks.
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BTW, I still can't figure out how a car company would accept a vehicle is a lemon if its only fault is rattling. In CA, from my understanding of the lemon laws, we need more than irritating noises.
And with the hmmmmm, it's the engine fan running to cool off the engine. Mine does it sometimes too when it's pretty hot outside. Don't worry, it's normal.
1) keep the car off the road for 30 consecutive days (mine had already done this)
2) severely affect the value of the vehicle (what would you think about a car in the shop 8 times in 7 months when being sold???)
3) be something that would make it fail MD inspection (which is not really that difficult).
So I am under 2 of the 3 criteria. I just mailed a certified letter to VWoA in Michigan not more than 2 hours ago. I put everything in there about how many times the car has been in the shop, the rep's visit, his recommendations, and all that. It was like 4 pages long by the time I got one. And to think, this car is only 7 MONTHS old now. What's going to happen when it's 7 YEARS old?
I am really thinking about talking to my lawyer about this situation. I wanna all see how long they are going to keep my car this time as well.
Oh, also, the MD lemon law says they have to give me another "replacement vehicle" or my refund. After this experience, I will take the cash, thank you. No more VWs for me. They are comfortable, stylish, safe cars. Well assembled, they are NOT.
The 1.8T, according to the manual says it requires premium (91 AKI or higher).
But it also has knock sensors in case you put lower octane gas. This retards the timing, giving you less power, and maybe less fuel economy.
Turbo Cool-Down
Under normal driving (normal being light careful, somewhat granny like), a turbo cool down period is not really necessary.
When you drive it hard, requires one. It even says it in the manual. THe harder to work the turbo, the hotter it gets. Shut the engine off, no circulating oil means the oil that is in the hot turbo will be taking all the heat punishment. This, depending on the oil, will coke the bearing, decreasing turbo performance and life. Idling the car before shutting, allows the circulating oil to cool down the turbo down to the engine operating temperature, then you shut it off.
So there is a dealer bulletin that says not to use the higher octane? Despite the gas cap?
Interesting that the official VW site indicates the same as well, and mentions nothing of using lower octane fuel.
1) keep the car off the road for 30 consecutive days (mine had already done this)<<
This is by your choice though...as there was nothing mechanically wrong with the car to keep it from operating.
>>2) severely affect the value of the vehicle (what would you think about a car in the shop 8 times in 7 months when being sold???)<<
How many times it was in the shop would have zero bearing on the resale as the buyer would not be privy to such information.
>>3) be something that would make it fail MD inspection (which is not really that difficult).<<
Again, there's nothing mechanically wrong with the car. Rattles may annoy you but they do not hinder the car's performance or make it unsafe to drive.
I imagine VW will buckle when they get a letter from a lawyer but if I were them, I'd fight you the whole way. There's nothing mechanically wrong with the car and certainly nothing that would keep you from re-selling it.